wan
English
editEtymology 1
editFrom Middle English wan, wanne (“grey, leaden; pale grey, ashen; blue-black (like a bruise); dim, faint; dark, gloomy”), from Old English wann (“dark, dusky”),[1] from Proto-Germanic *wannaz (“dark, swart”), of uncertain origin. Cognate with Old Frisian wann, wonn (“dark”).
Pronunciation
edit- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /wɒn/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- (General American) IPA(key): /wɑn/
- (obsolete) IPA(key): /wæn/[2]
- Rhymes: -ɒn
- Homophone: one
Adjective
editwan (comparative wanner, superlative wannest)
- Pale, sickly-looking.
- Synonyms: ashen, pasty; see also Thesaurus:pallid
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 42, page 116:
- Whome when his Lady ſaw, to him ſhe ran / With haſty ioy : to ſee him made her glad, / And ſad to view his viſage pale and wan, / Who earſt in flowres of freſhest youth was clad.
- 1838 October, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Beleaguered City”, in Voices of the Night, Cambridge, Mass.: […] John Owen, published 1839, →OCLC, stanzas 1–2, page 22:
- I have read in some old marvellous tale, / Some legend strange and vague, / That a midnight host of spectres pale / Beleaguered the walls of Prague. // Beside the Moldau’s rushing stream, / With the wan moon overhead, / There stood, as in an awful dream, / The army of the dead.
- 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 46, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
- Blanche smiled languidly out upon the young men, thinking whether she looked very wan and green under her rose-coloured hood, and whether it was the mirrors at Gaunt House, or the fatigue and fever of her own eyes, which made her fancy herself so pale.
- 1892, Joaquin Miller, Columbus :
- BEHIND him lay the gray Azores, / Behind the Gates of Hercules; / Before him not the ghost of shores, / Before him only shoreless seas. // The good mate said: “Now must we pray, / For lo! the very stars are gone. / Brave Admiral, speak, what shall I say?” / “Why, say, ‘Sail on! sail on! and on!’”
“My men grow mutinous day by day; / My men grow ghastly wan and weak.” / The stout mate thought of home; a spray / Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek. // “What shall I say, brave Admiral, say, / If we sight naught but seas at dawn?” / “Why, you shall say at break of day, / ‘Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!’”
They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow, / Until at last the blanched mate said: / “Why, now not even God would know / Should I and all my men fall dead. // These very winds forget their way, / For God from these dread seas is gone. / Now speak, brave Admiral, speak and say”— / He said: “Sail on! sail on! and on!”
They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate: / “This mad sea shows his teeth to-night. / He curls his lip, he lies in wait, / With lifted teeth, as if to bite! // Brave Admiral, say but one good word: / What shall we do when hope is gone?” / The words leapt like a leaping sword: / “Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!”
Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck, / And peered through darkness. Ah, that night / Of all dark nights! And then a speck— / A light! A light! A light! A light! // It grew, a starlit flag unfurled! / It grew to be Time’s burst of dawn. / He gained a world; he gave that world / Its grandest lesson: “On! sail on!”
- BEHIND him lay the gray Azores, / Behind the Gates of Hercules; / Before him not the ghost of shores, / Before him only shoreless seas. // The good mate said: “Now must we pray, / For lo! the very stars are gone. / Brave Admiral, speak, what shall I say?” / “Why, say, ‘Sail on! sail on! and on!’”
- 1921 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Efficiency Expert”, in All-Story Weekly, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as “The Trial”, in The Efficiency Expert, [Auckland]: The Floating Press, 2011, →ISBN, page 188:
- She looked wan and worried, and then finally she was not in court one day, and later [...] he learned that she was confined to her room with a bad cold.
- 1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 24:
- Big fair wan lovely pale-freckled Kathleen with that buoyant bust gave kindly smiles but mostly she was silent.
- 2020, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments, Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, →ISBN, page 45:
- Instead, you wiped off the red lipstick with wadded-up toilet paper and forced a smile, leaving the locker room with a pale, cotton candy-colored lipstick that made you look wan and parched instead.
- Dim, faint.
- Synonyms: dull, dun, leaden, uncolorful
- Antonyms: colorful, colorific, coloury; see also Thesaurus:multicolored
- 1909, Robert W[illiam] Service, “The Ballad of One-eyed Mike”, in Ballads of a Cheechako, Toronto, Ont.: William Briggs, →OCLC, stanza 5, page 52:
- ’Twas so far away, that evil day when I prayed the Prince of Gloom / For the savage strength and the sullen length of life to work his doom. / Nor sign nor word had I seen or heard, and it happed so long ago; / My youth was gone and my memory wan, and I willed it even so.
- Bland, uninterested.
- Synonyms: insipid, lackluster; see also Thesaurus:boring
- A wan expression
- 1867 July 13, “Lieutenant Castagnac”, in Every Saturday: A Journal of Choice Reading, Selected from Foreign Current Literature, volume IV, number 80, Cambridge, Mass.: Printed at the University Press, Cambridge, by Welch, Bigelow, & Co., for Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, chapter II, page 35:
- My position in the midst of the general indifference was hard to bear ; my silence weighed upon me like remorse. The sight of Lieutenant Castagnac filled me with indignation, — a sort of insurmountable repulsion: the wan look, the ironical smile of the man, froze my blood.
- 2013, Carter Dreyfuss, chapter 1, in The Prince of Temple Square: A Murder Mystery, Tucson, Ariz.: Wheatmark, →ISBN, pages 8–9:
- Checking out her brother’s khakis, the gun propped in the corner, Olivia’s hiking boots and her wan expression, she wants to laugh. “Been hunting, I see.” Olivia’s face falls, as expected. Her brother’s obsession with guns and gross little expeditions appall her.
- 2014, Chris Angus, chapter 12, in Flypaper: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Yucca Publishing, Skyhorse Publishing, →ISBN:
- “I have to admit, I’ve been tempted a time or two to chuck everything to go live in a place like this [Bogda Peak, China],” he replied. / “What stopped you?” / He gave her a wan look. “Celibacy.”
Derived terms
editTranslations
edit
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Noun
editwan (uncountable)
- The quality of being wan; wanness.
- Synonyms: achromatism, decolouration, paleness, pallidity, pallor
- 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part III”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 47:
- And while we stood beside the fount, and watch’d / Or seem’d to watch the dancing bubble, approach'd / Melissa, tinged with wan from lack of sleep, / Or sorrow, and glowing round her dewy eyes / The circled Iris of a night of tears ; [...]
Etymology 2
editEye dialect spelling of one. Sense 2 (“girl or woman”) possibly as a result of the phrase your wan as a counterpart to your man.
Noun
editwan (plural wans)
- Pronunciation spelling of one, representing Ireland English.
- (Ireland) A girl or woman.
- Synonyms: lass, maid; see also Thesaurus:girl, Thesaurus:woman
- 1993, Elaine Crowley, The Ways Of Women, London: Orion, →ISBN:
- Then I’d tell myself there were plenty of oul wans and oul fellas in work who never got it and that I’d be lucky like them and escape. Only I didn’t. I don’t want to die.
- 2005, David McWilliams, The Pope’s Children: Ireland’s New Elite, Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, →ISBN; republished as The Pope’s Children: The Irish Economic Triumph and the Rise of Ireland’s New Elite, Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, 2008, →ISBN, page 4:
- Growing up in Dún Laoghaire in the 1980s, I remember all the hard men were sinewy, scrawny lads, hence the local description ‘more meat on a seagull’. The reason was simple: they were undernourished. [...] The young wans, despite a couple of babies, were more or less the same, pinched, flat-chested and drawn.
- 2015, Kevin Maher, “A Yuletide Bender”, in Last Night on Earth, London: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN:
- He comes streaming out from under the stage, this time a feckin show-stopper, almost literally, because there’s eighty different acrobats above him, [...] for this mad New Year’s show that has no story at all, other than this wan in silky robes who goes out with this fella in silky robes, and they’re from different enemy tribes of lads and wans in silky robes, and when they find out, they have this huge, aerial, acrobatic donnybrook that ends when everyone wraps their silk around each other up in the air, and then lets it all fall down to the ground, where the audience are, to show them how we're all part of one big silky family, and not to be fighting in the future.
Derived terms
editEtymology 3
editAn inflected form.
Verb
editwan
References
edit- ^ “wan, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 5 January 2018.
- ^ Thomas Sheridan (1790) A Complete Dictionary of the English Language, Both with Regard to Sound and Meaning[1], volume 2, C. Dilly
Anagrams
editAinu
edit< 9 | 10 | 11 > |
---|---|---|
Cardinal : wan Ordinal : wan ikinne | ||
Pronunciation
editNumeral
editwan (Kana spelling ワン)
Atong (India)
editEtymology
editPronunciation
editNumeral
editwan (Bengali script ৱান)
Synonyms
editReferences
edit- van Breugel, Seino. 2015. Atong-English dictionary, second edition. Available online: https://www.academia.edu/487044/Atong_English_Dictionary. Stated in Appendix 2.
Bislama
edit< 0 | 1 | 2 > |
---|---|---|
Cardinal : wan | ||
Etymology
editNumeral
editwan
Dutch
editPronunciation
editEtymology 1
editNoun
editwan f or m (plural wannen, diminutive wannetje n)
Etymology 2
editVerb
editwan
- inflection of wannen:
Fanagalo
editEtymology
editNumeral
editwan
Gothic
editRomanization
editwan
- Romanization of 𐍅𐌰𐌽
Hunsrik
editAdverb
editwan (Wiesemann spelling)
- Alternative spelling of wann
Indonesian
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFrom tuan.
Pronunciation
edit- (Standard Indonesian) IPA(key): /ˈwan/ [ˈwan]
- Rhymes: -an
- Syllabification: wan
Noun
editwan
Further reading
edit- “wan” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.
Jamaican Creole
edit10 | ||||
1 | 2 → | 10 → | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Cardinal: wan Ordinal: fos |
Etymology
editPronunciation 1
editNumeral
editwan
- one
- 2012, Di Jamiekan Nyuu Testiment, Edinburgh: DJB, published 2012, →ISBN, 2:5:
- Kaaz a onggl wan Gad de bout, an Jiizas Krais a di migl man, di onggl wan we kyan bring Gad an piipl tugeda.
- For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
Pronunciation 2
editArticle
editwan
- a, an (indefinite article)
- 2012, Di Jamiekan Nyuu Testiment, Edinburgh: DJB, published 2012, →ISBN, 4:9:
- So nou, di Samaritan uman se tu Jiizas se, “Yu a wan Juu an mi a wan Samaritan uman. […]
- he Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? […]
Alternative spelling
editFurther reading
edit- wan at majstro.com
Japanese
editRomanization
editwan
Jingpho
editEtymology 1
editInherited from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *bʷar ~ *pʷar (“burn; fire; kindle; roast”) (STEDT).
Pronunciation
editNoun
editwan
Derived terms
editEtymology 2
editBorrowed from Mandarin 碗 (wǎn, “bowl”).
Pronunciation
editNoun
editwan
Classifier
editwan
References
edit- Xu, Xijian (徐悉艰), Xiao, Jiacheng (肖家成), Yue, Xiangkun (岳相昆), Dai, Qingxia (戴庆厦) (1983 December) “wan”, in 景汉辞典 [Jingpho-Chinese Dictionary], Kunming: Yunnan Nationalities Publishing House, pages 868-869
Mandarin
editRomanization
editwan
- Nonstandard spelling of wān.
- Nonstandard spelling of wán.
- Nonstandard spelling of wǎn.
- Nonstandard spelling of wàn.
Usage notes
edit- Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.
Maranao
editVerb
editwan
- to fear
References
edit- A Maranao Dictionary, by Howard P. McKaughan and Batua A. Macaraya
Middle English
editEtymology 1
editFrom Old English wann (“dark”), from Proto-Germanic *wannaz, of uncertain origin.
Adjective
editwan
- wan (pallid, sickly)
- wan (dim, faint)
Alternative forms
editDescendants
editReferences
edit- “wan, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Etymology 2
editNoun
editwan (uncountable)
- Alternative form of wane (“deprivation”)
Etymology 3
editAdjective
editwan
- Alternative form of wane
Etymology 4
editNoun
editwan (uncountable)
- (Northern) Alternative form of vein (“that which is vain”)
Etymology 5
editPronoun
editwan
- Alternative form of whan
Etymology 6
editNoun
editwan (plural wanes)
- (Northern, Early Middle English) Alternative form of wone (“dwelling”)
Etymology 7
editNoun
editwan (uncountable)
- Alternative form of wane (“woeful state”)
Etymology 8
editNoun
editwan (plural wanes)
- Alternative form of wone (“choice”)
Etymology 9
editNoun
editwan (plural wanes)
- Alternative form of wayn (“wagon”)
Etymology 10
editVerb
editwan (third-person singular simple present waneth, present participle wanende, wanynge, first-/third-person singular past indicative and past participle waned)
- Alternative form of wanen
Etymology 11
editAdverb
editwan
- Alternative form of whenne
Conjunction
editwan
- Alternative form of whenne
Etymology 12
editAdverb
editwan
- Alternative form of whanne
Conjunction
editwan
- Alternative form of whanne
Etymology 13
editVerb
editwan
Nigerian Pidgin
editEtymology
editVerb
editwan
- want, want to
Noone
editNoun
editwan (plural boom)
References
edit- R. Blench, Beboid Comparative
North Frisian
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFrom Old Frisian winna, from Proto-Germanic *winnaną.
Verb
editwan
- (Föhr-Amrum) to win
Conjugation
editinfinitive I | wan | |
---|---|---|
infinitive II | (tu) wanen | |
past participle | wonen | |
imperative singular | wan | |
imperative plural | wan’m | |
present | past | |
1st singular | wan | woon |
2nd singular | wanst | woonst |
3rd singular | want | woon |
plural | wan | woon |
perfect | pluperfect | |
1st singular | haa wonen | hed wonen |
2nd singular | heest wonen | hedst wonen |
3rd singular | hee wonen | hed wonen |
plural | haa wonen | hed wonen |
future (skel) | future (wel) | |
1st singular | skal wan | wal wan |
2nd singular | skääl wan | wääl wan |
3rd singular | skal wan | wal wan |
plural | skel wan | wel wan |
Old English
editAlternative forms
editPronunciation
editVerb
editwan
- third-person singular of winnan
- Grendel wan hwile wið Hroþgar. ― Grendel long fought against Hrothgar. (Beowulf ll. 151-2)
Old Javanese
editEtymology
editUnknown. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Pronunciation
editRoot
editwan Clear or plain; certain or fixed. Herd.
Alternative forms
editDerived terms
editFurther reading
edit- "wan" in P.J. Zoetmulder with the collaboration of S.O. Robson, Old Javanese-English Dictionary. 's-Gravenhage: M. Nijhoff, 1982.
Pipil
editPronunciation
editNoun
edit-wan
- with, in relation to
- Shiwi nuwan wan niweli nimetzilwitia ne nukal yankwik
- Come with me and I can show you my new house
Declension
editConjunction
editwan
- and, but
- Shinechmaka yey pula wan chikwasen tumat
- Give me three plantains and six tomatoes
- Nikilwij ma timuitakan yalua wan inte walajsik
- I told her/him to meet yesterday but she/he didn't come
Scots
editPronunciation
editNumeral
editwan
Sranan Tongo
editEtymology 1
editNumber
editwan
Etymology 2
editVerb
editwan
- Alternative form of wani
Tok Pisin
edit10 | ||||
1 | 2 → | 10 → | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Cardinal: wan |
Etymology
editNoun
editwan
- The number one.
- 1989, Buk Baibel long Tok Pisin, Port Moresby: Bible Society of Papua New Guinea, Jenesis 1:5:
- Tulait em i kolim “De,” na tudak em i kolim “Nait.” Nait i go pinis na moning i kamap. Em i de namba wan.
- Naming the light, Day, and the dark, Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
Numeral
editwan
- One. Used with units of measurement and in times: wan aua, wan klok. See also wanpela.
Coordinate terms
editDerived terms
editWutunhua
editPronunciation
editEtymology 1
editVerb
editwan
- to play
Etymology 2
editNoun
editwan
- bowl
- ngu wan da-pe-lio.
- I broke a bowl.
References
edit- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɒn
- Rhymes:English/ɒn/1 syllable
- English terms with homophones
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with usage examples
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English pronunciation spellings
- Irish English
- English non-lemma forms
- English verb forms
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English three-letter words
- en:Female people
- Ainu terms with IPA pronunciation
- Ainu lemmas
- Ainu numerals
- Atong (India) terms borrowed from English
- Atong (India) terms derived from English
- Atong (India) terms with IPA pronunciation
- Atong (India) lemmas
- Atong (India) numerals
- Atong (India) numerals in Latin script
- Bislama terms inherited from English
- Bislama terms derived from English
- Bislama lemmas
- Bislama numerals
- Dutch terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:Dutch/ɑn
- Rhymes:Dutch/ɑn/1 syllable
- Dutch terms derived from Latin
- Dutch lemmas
- Dutch nouns
- Dutch feminine nouns
- Dutch masculine nouns
- Dutch nouns with multiple genders
- Dutch non-lemma forms
- Dutch verb forms
- Fanagalo terms borrowed from English
- Fanagalo terms derived from English
- Fanagalo lemmas
- Fanagalo numerals
- Fanagalo cardinal numbers
- Gothic non-lemma forms
- Gothic romanizations
- Hunsrik lemmas
- Hunsrik adverbs
- Hunsrik terms with Wiesemann spelling
- Indonesian 1-syllable words
- Indonesian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Indonesian/an
- Rhymes:Indonesian/an/1 syllable
- Indonesian lemmas
- Indonesian nouns
- Indonesian dialectal terms
- Jamaican Creole terms derived from English
- Jamaican Creole terms with IPA pronunciation
- Jamaican Creole lemmas
- Jamaican Creole numerals
- Jamaican Creole terms with quotations
- Jamaican Creole articles
- Jamaican Creole cardinal numbers
- Japanese non-lemma forms
- Japanese romanizations
- Jingpho terms inherited from Proto-Sino-Tibetan
- Jingpho terms derived from Proto-Sino-Tibetan
- Jingpho terms with IPA pronunciation
- Jingpho lemmas
- Jingpho nouns
- Jingpho terms borrowed from Mandarin
- Jingpho terms derived from Mandarin
- Hanyu Pinyin
- Mandarin non-lemma forms
- Mandarin nonstandard forms
- Maranao lemmas
- Maranao verbs
- Middle English terms inherited from Old English
- Middle English terms derived from Old English
- Middle English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Middle English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English adjectives
- Middle English nouns
- Middle English uncountable nouns
- Northern Middle English
- Middle English pronouns
- Early Middle English
- Middle English verbs
- Middle English adverbs
- Middle English conjunctions
- Middle English non-lemma forms
- Middle English verb forms
- Middle English plural past forms
- Nigerian Pidgin terms derived from English
- Nigerian Pidgin lemmas
- Nigerian Pidgin verbs
- Noone lemmas
- Noone nouns
- North Frisian terms derived from Old Frisian
- North Frisian terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- North Frisian lemmas
- North Frisian verbs
- Föhr-Amrum North Frisian
- Old English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Old English non-lemma forms
- Old English verb forms
- Old English terms with usage examples
- Old Javanese terms with unknown etymologies
- Old Javanese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Old Javanese/wan
- Rhymes:Old Javanese/wan/1 syllable
- Old Javanese lemmas
- Old Javanese roots
- Pipil terms with IPA pronunciation
- Pipil relational nouns
- Pipil terms with usage examples
- Pipil lemmas
- Pipil conjunctions
- Scots terms with IPA pronunciation
- Scots lemmas
- Scots numerals
- Scots cardinal numbers
- West Central Scots
- Orkney Scots
- Sranan Tongo terms derived from English
- Sranan Tongo lemmas
- Sranan Tongo numerals
- Sranan Tongo cardinal numbers
- Sranan Tongo verbs
- Tok Pisin terms inherited from English
- Tok Pisin terms derived from English
- Tok Pisin lemmas
- Tok Pisin nouns
- Tok Pisin terms with quotations
- Tok Pisin numerals
- Tok Pisin cardinal numbers
- tpi:One
- Wutunhua terms with IPA pronunciation
- Wutunhua terms derived from Mandarin
- Wutunhua lemmas
- Wutunhua verbs
- Wutunhua nouns
- Wutunhua terms with usage examples